Stay Gold
by Jcthegirl
Summary: "And that, my friends, is a sunrise." - Akurokushi, friendship.


_Pairing: Akurokushi friendship._

_Inspiration: S.E. Hilton's** The Outsiders**. The specific scenes this relates to were in turn inspired by Robert Frost's poem, **Nothing Gold Can Stay.**  
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><p><em>Stay Gold<em>

"So, Axel... Why'd you drag us out here so early?" Roxas stretched lazily from Axel's left with a wide mouthed yawn and squinted eyes, despite the dark sky. The stars were beginning to be replaced by the light blue of morning. "Or is it late. I'm not really sure."

"Come on, you've seen five million sunsets before. Can't we do anything different?"

Though Roxas was quite sure he had never seen such a large number of sunsets, at least not in that lifetime, he shrugged lightly and mumbled incoherently. He was so drowsy he couldn't even recall or at least estimate the number of sunsets he had seen to prove Axel wrong for once.

"If you're so concerned about watching something other than a sunset, then don't worry; in a way, we're still watching one- just backwards is all."

"You say the strangest things, Axel." Xion giggled quietly from his other side. A small smirk adorned Roxas's lips where he lay back with lidded eyes, not one unlike Axel's.

"Oh, _I_ say weird things, do I?" He raised a thin eyebrow, though he was too lazy to roll over and let it be known to either of his friends.

"Yes," they answered in complete unison, and Axel had to brusquely dismiss the thought that they had sounded unnaturally alike for that quick moment. He sighed exaggeratedly.

"And so the pot calls the kettle black," Axel intoned with dramatic, slow shakes of his head against his arms that would usually be accompanied by a theatrical sweep or crossing of his arms.

"See, just like that," Roxas pointed out proudly. Axel wore a smug grin and rolled his eyes, continuing on to explain to Roxas the nuances of idioms ("Hey, I'm not an idiot!" Roxas retorted angrily. "No, _idioms_, you idiot," Axel sighed).

Xion listened to their pointless argument with a gentle little smile lifting her lips. It had been a while since they had done much anything together like that, no matter the time of day or the clocktower they sat on. And the sad thing was, it wouldn't last. Xion knew. Axel knew. Roxas didn't.

Some things were inevitable, as she had learned. So she would enjoy her time with the two people she loved most (and really, had ever loved).

"Wait, what's that?" Xion sat up and eagerly stared out at the sky, a palette of cool colors. A tinge of orange and crimson peered back at her discreetly over the thin horizon line. The grey wisps of clouds and mist that had settled comfortably over the twinkling city below, one Xion had at first taken as a reflection of the stars, transformed from the dull colors of half-morning into a rosy pink.

The webs of mist glistened with gold dew, Xion's breath caught in her throat, and she was sure the rest of the world had to have been watching it alongside her, because she could have sworn she had heard a collective intake of air pass through a thousand other lungs.

Her companions leaned over the empty air as well, Axel with his usual satisfied smirk obviously directed at his friends though his eyes were surveying the marvelous sight, and Roxas with his usual open-mouthed gape.

The light overtook night's hold over everything in a routine passing along of power. Soon it was all pinks and golds, and the world seemed to sigh in relief as the sun slowly pushed its way over the horizon.

Axel snuck glances at his two best friends' expressions with a mixture of pride and happy content.

"And that, my friends, is a sunrise." They were equally startled by his voice, and he had to snatch them by the hoods of their coats so they didn't hurtle themselves off Big Ben.

"It- it's-" Xion was at a loss for words.

"Beautiful," Roxas finished for her, still retaining his look of awe. His gaze wandered up the side of the tower until it found the very top. "Wonder if you could see it any better from there... Wait, that's it!"

He leapt up quickly and summoned a portal. "I'll be right back; don't go anywhere!"

He dashed off into it, throwing a last glance over his shoulder to make sure neither his friends nor the sunrise were about to leave.

"No worries." Axel fell back with his hands behind his head. Xion leaned back as well, thoughtfully looking up at the clouds to pick out the biggest, most colorful of them to stare at.

"I can't decide what's prettier: the sunrise, or sunset," she thought aloud. She seemed sad at the prospect of having to pick between the two.

"Then don't. You can like both, you know." He couldn't help but think about his two former charges.

"That's good, because I'd be here forever if I had to choose."

"Staying out here forever with you two doesn't seem like much of a bad thing at all." He chuckled to cover up the admittance in his voice. "Surprisingly."

Xion smiled sadly. "I wish it could be that way."

A moment of silent communication passed between the two. They knew it wouldn't last. Axel knew it deep down, Xion knew it right then, and neither would admit it. But they would treasure the time anyway, for Roxas's sake, for each others' sakes, for their own sakes.

"I'm back, you guys!" Roxas shattered the melancholy atmosphere by literally flying through a portal and into the air below them, hovering in front of the clock's face. Seeing the amazed look on Xion's face, he zoomed up and did a little flip in midair to show off.

"Whaddya think, Xion? Want to give flying a try?" He floated above their heads lazily. His hands were cupped tightly around something. Grinning, he sprinkled half of the sparkly dust over Xion's head and threw the other half at the back of Axel's head.

"Ow!" Axel frowned at him and rubbed the back of his head. Roxas taunted him by flying circles around them, even daring to stick his tongue out at him. He knew of the older Nobody's dislike of flying and played it to his advantage.

"Oh ho, I'll get you for that!" Axel stood up, and with a quick, cautious glance at the city below, leapt off the ledge. Xion leaned forward and gripped the ledge.

"Axel-" she began to scream instinctively, but he rose back up a second later.

"What, worried about me?" He smirked at her, proceeding to snatch a retreating Roxas by the ankle and put him in a headlock.

"Ow- hey, stop it, I'm sorry-"

Xion just gaped at them. "How are you two doing that?"

"That dust stuff Roxas put on us. It can make you fly, here anyway." Said boy struggled in Axel's tough grip to no avail. "Remember? We talked about how we flew here once before."

"So I... can fly?" She eyed the long drop with fearful apprehension.

Roxas finally slipped out of the headlock. "Yeah, all you've gotta do is think 'I can fly!' Then you just jump off, and you'll fly!"

"I don't know..."

"Don't you trust us?" Roxas looked a little despondent as they floated by expectantly.

"I- I do." Xion stood up and took a deep breath. Shutting her eyes as tightly as possible, she stiffened up pencil straight with her hands balled at her sides and took a step off the edge.

"I'm..." A single eye peeked out from under her eyelid. Her eyes flew open in pleasant surprise. "I'm flying!"

She looked down at her two friends, who had flown below her to make sure she didn't plummet to her death.

"I'm flying!" she squealed again, spreading her arms out like a bird and attempting to figure out how to get down to her friends. She flapped her arms uselessly and kicked her legs helplessly, only managing to make them laugh. Eventually she discovered you simply had to will yourself, as there was no other way to describe it, to get anywhere.

"Incoming!" Xion giggled happily as she flew into her two friends. She linked her arms with theirs and pulled them up with her towards the clouds.

"Where are we going, Xion?" Roxas yelled over the rush of wind in their ears.

"I don't know!" she yelled back, laughing joyfully as the two boys were pulled behind her. A particularly fluffy, golden-flecked cloud drifted along above them in slow complacency, and she burst through it and popped out the other side a moment later. Roxas and Xion looked stunned, as if they had expected to slide through cotton or be wrapped in a white blanket. Axel's laugh rang out at the sight of their faces.

"Let's go down there!" Roxas pointed at the thin spire of Big Ben, loosening his other arm from Xion's to grab her hand. She barely managed to keep a grip on Axel before Roxas yanked them down to the very top of the clocktower.

Roxas looked over his shoulder at his two friends. Xion's eyes were wide and shining with childlike joy, and even Axel seemed to be enjoying himself. He hadn't seen their smiling faces for what seemed like forever.

"Race ya there!" Roxas suddenly let go of Xion's hand and left his friends in confusion until they caught up to his words, giving him a second head start.

"No way am I losing to a couple of kids!"

"Axel, warping is cheating!"

"Says who? Roxas got a head start!"

The three, only out of breath after having laughed so much, finally made it to the tower with Xion coming in first. Using her friends to her advantage, she had grabbed the shoulders of each and propelled herself forward.

"I can't believe we lost- and to a girl, to Xion of all people!" Axel groaned as the three hovered around the spire.

"Hey, at least I play fair," she countered good-naturedly.

"I thought you didn't even like flying, Axel," Roxas said as he lay on top of air on his back. A grin sprouted on his face. "You should've seen Axel when we first came to Neverland together, and I had to show him how to fly. Me, teaching Axel something- that's probably why he didn't like it. The funniest part was when he tried to fly and couldn't- and you guys say I look ridiculous sometimes."

Xion just giggled as Axel grumbled to himself. "So how'd you get him to fly?"

"It took a lot of 'just believe me's."

"Well, what's so hard to believe? You wouldn't lie about that kind of thing." A frown pulled at the corners of Xion's lips. Roxas cocked his head to the side as he turned over and floated upright.

"Well..." Axel seemed to mull it over as he watched the clouds float by lazily. "See those clouds?"

"Yeah."

"Mm-hmm."

"Look at them. What do you see?"

They scrunched their faces up and squinted at them for a while. Cloud seemed to be much too obvious of an answer.

"I see... a... I know! It looks like a seashell!" Xion exclaimed and pointed at a certain cloud. Roxas seemed to catch on.

"Oh, that one looks like an ice cream!"

"And that one looks like a turtle!"

"Yeah, and that one-"

"Ok, ok, I think we've got the point. For me, eleven years ago or so, I would've looked at these clouds and- well, actually, we did look at the clouds sometimes. What kid didn't? But anyway, I would've seen that cloud, right... there-" Axel pointed to the seashell-cloud. "-and said, 'Hm, that looks like a flower.' Or maybe, 'It looks like a..."

He thought it over. "'A frisbee', maybe."

He paused for another moment, his eyes running over the cloud with a glazed over look. "But now, I'd see it and say, 'It looks like a cloud.' And that one over there, 'That's a cloud.' And that's if I even looked at them in the first place."

They didn't seem to follow what he said. After the paused, thinking about it, something faint seemed to click in Xion's eyes. "You don't see anything in the clouds, Axel?"

"I'm a Nobody. I'd see that, tell you it's a cloud, and maybe I'd even go on to say something about it being cumulus or something." He smiled mirthlessly. "No emotions, no imagination, and no believing. It's all hard fact stripped bare."

_And yet, you two have a bigger imagination than even I had as a kid. And yet, you two act more human than I see humans acting. Sometimes, I wonder who's the one pretending here._

"We'll... we'll teach you then, Axel!" Xion said with a determined look. For once, Axel looked confused. "You've taught us everything else, so we'll teach you how to look at the clouds, how to look at them like we do. Like the way you used to, when you were a kid."

"Yeah, and maybe, you'll get back this 'imagination' you lost, and you'll get back believing too."

Axel stared at them with an incredulous look, something the two rarely saw on Axel's face, and he began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Xion pouted cutely and put her hands on her hips.

"You two- you're such kids." He grinned widely.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Roxas frowned and crossed his arms. Axel reached over to both of them, ruffling their hair as he chuckled.

"Never change- get it memorized."

They pushed his hands off their heads, both laughing a little. Xion looked out to the horizon line, now fully taken in yellow.

"Oh..." Xion seemed to finally notice the sunrise had ended. "All the pretty pinks and golds are gone."

Axel grinned at where the sunrise used to be, a hint of sadness in the smile and touching his eyes. "Nothing gold can stay."

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><p><em>"I've <em>_been__ thinking __about __it, __and __that __poem, __that __guy __that __wrote __it, __he means you're gold when you're a kid__, like green__.__ When you're a kid everything's new, dawn__. It's just when you get used to everything that it's day__.__ Like the way you like sunsets, Pony__.__ That's gold. __Keep that way, it's a good way to be.__"_ -Johnny Cade from S.E. Hilton's _The__ Outsiders_

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><p><em>AN: Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold ;-; If you haven't read the book, I suggest you do. Read it in seventh grade and really liked it. :)_

_This was quite the random inspiration... and _I realized I didn't have any RAX trio friendship at all. XD_ Hope you enjoyed all the same ;D  
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